Choi Ji-young

Choi Ji-young (최지영) is a South Korean director whose path runs from independent film craft into mainstream television, and she now fronts the live-action adaptation of Painter of the Night for Lezhin Snack. That assignment matters because the project is not a casual web add-on. It is one of Lezhin's clearest tests of whether premium BL webtoon fandom can transfer cleanly into short-form drama.

Industry profile material from Cine21 traces her training through the Korean National University of Arts and graduate film study at the University of Texas at Austin, then maps early credits including A Bit Further Toward the Sea and Sanchaek. Later television work expanded her range before she joined the Painter of the Night adaptation with leads Kim Kang-jae and Ji Min-seo.

That mix of indie grounding and broadcast experience is exactly why her name matters here. She brings formal control, pacing discipline, and experience across different production scales to one of 2026's most closely watched adaptation swings.